Memeorandum

January 30, 2017

I Smell Fake News

Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, an Obama holdover, thrills her future employers by refusing to put the weight of the DoJ behind Trump's travel ban. Even the Times admits this gesture is somewhat symbolic since she is on her way out and Jeff Sessions is on his way in, but they include this odd detail:

Mr. Trump has the authority to fire Ms. Yates, but as the top Senate-confirmed official at the Justice Department, she is the only one authorized to sign foreign surveillance warrants, an essential function at the department.

Say what? I am not an authority on departmental succession but I have seen the trailers for "Designated Survivor" and I can't believe there is no Plan B if, God forbid, Ms. Yates is hit by a car or taken ill in the next few days.

(g) “Attorney General” means the Attorney General of the United States (or Acting Attorney General), the Deputy Attorney General, or, upon the designation of the Attorney General, the Assistant Attorney General designated as the Assistant Attorney General for National Security under section 507A of title 28.

Just to introduce some complications, here are the first few paragraphs:

(a) If an officer of an Executive agency (including the Executive Office of the President, and other than the Government Accountability Office) whose appointment to office is required to be made by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, dies, resigns, or is otherwise unable to perform the functions and duties of the office—

(1) the first assistant to the office of such officer shall perform the functions and duties of the office temporarily in an acting capacity subject to the time limitations of section 3346;

(2) notwithstanding paragraph (1), the President (and only the President) may direct a person who serves in an office for which appointment is required to be made by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to perform the functions and duties of the vacant office temporarily in an acting capacity subject to the time limitations of section 3346; or...

So just to stop there - it seems that so far, the Acting AG must come from the ranks of either the confirmed deputy or another officer high enough in rank to have required Senate confirmation. It is possible that during the Obama/Trump transition the top people appointed by Obama and confirmed by the Senate have all left except Ms. Yates and there are no remaining senior Justice officials eligible under this clause. Lacking access to the DoJ roster, I don't know that to be true, but the Times story points that way.

But there are more provisions under which the President can make an appointment. Here are the next bits:

(3) notwithstanding paragraph (1), the President (and only the President) may direct an officer or employee of such Executive agency to perform the functions and duties of the vacant office temporarily in an acting capacity, subject to the time limitations of section 3346, if—

(A)

during the 365-day period preceding the date of death, resignation, or beginning of inability to serve of the applicable officer, the officer or employee served in a position in such agency for not less than 90 days; and

(B)

the rate of pay for the position described under subparagraph (A) is equal to or greater than the minimum rate of pay payable for a position at GS–15 of the General Schedule.

I think that means that anyone who has been with the DoJ at least three months with at least a GS-15 pay grade can take over any top spot on any acting basis. I could easily be wrong (Kiefer Sutherland skimmed over that point), and again, maybe all such people have moved on to their K-Street lobbying gigs. But that passage in the Times strikes me as a "too good to check" progressive fantasy rather than something the Times drilled down on. Then again, I would think that...

As I said, over to the lawyers! Aided by DoJ payroll and roster savants wherever they may be.

UPDATE: I guess we will find out - Trump has fired Yates and the new Acting AG is Dana Boente, former US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. In that role he was subject to Senate confirmation and should qualify under paragraph (2). The bench may have been deeper than the Times realized.

MORE: A Deplorable commenter noticed this Obama Executive Order, signed a week before he left. Quite likely the top appointees were heading for the exits, so it formalized a chain of succession for the Attorney General. Key takeaway - down the list a bit are some US Attorneys:

(a) United States Attorney for the District of Columbia;

(b) United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and

(c) United States Attorney for the Central District of California.

Next is a clause allowing the President to make any alternative legal appointment. Presumably, if one US Attorney is eligible another ought to be as well. Hence, Boente.

Administrations of both parties have interpreted surveillance laws as requiring foreign surveillance warrants be signed only by Senate-confirmed Justice Department officials. Ms. Yates was named as acting attorney general to allow her to continue signing those warrants. Mr. Boente was Senate confirmed as United States attorney and, though the situation is unprecedented, the White House said he was authorized to sign the warrants.

Well, it is not just the White House saying so. Even hack legal wanna-bes like me can see this logical thread, so I am sure the high-priced talent at the Times can do the same.

Now, we are all wondering what the Times does with their first, pre-firing story, which included this bit of speculative fiction:

Mr. Trump has the authority to fire Ms. Yates, but as the top Senate-confirmed official at the Justice Department, she is the only one authorized to sign foreign surveillance warrants, an essential function at the department.

Not a lot of caveats there, yet the Times no longer stands by it. Correction, with embarrassing editor's note, or midnight revision? Time will tell!

APPARENT RESOLUTION: It never printed so it never happened. This was a fast-moving story so the original article never made the print edition, and has now been disappeared. The original link to "Acting Attorney General Orders..." now re-directs to the current version, "Trump Fires...". And the original problematic paragraph disappears.

To Be Fair, that paragraph appeared with no sourcing at all, which may have been a waving red flag even within the Times newsroom. Still, folks were citing that bit of misinformation yesterday. Breaking news remains an ongoing challenge in the Twitter/Trump era.

WASHINGTON—Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly has clashed with the White House over staffing and other decisions in recent days, people familiar with the matter said, leaving the agency without a second-in-command as it tried to institute a new travel ban during a chaotic weekend at the nation’s airports.

When President Donald Trump selected Mr. Kelly, the pick won broad support from Republicans and Democrats in part because they believed the retired Marine general would be willing to speak up and challenge Mr. Trump.

That tension didn’t take long to materialize. Mr. Kelly hasn’t been able to name the deputy he wants at the agency, people familiar with the matter said, and he fought off attempts by the White House to put Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state known as a hard-liner on immigration, into the position.

I am not surprised at the outrage, protests, rioting, assaults and general political misinformation - status quo. The Democrats and progressives are reeling from the actions and urgency exhibited by Trump. They know that this is playing well with the American public who elected him to do exactly what he said he would do.

What did they expect? Another Obama redux of watching ESPN, hitting the links and taking multi-million dollar vacations?

Then we have that from in the UK, Boris Johnson, proclaiming in Parliament that Trump's "bark is more than his bite." So much for holding hands with May.

I guess the 'party of no' is now a moniker of honor.
Neat Alilnskyite trick; declare your opponents illegitimate and fascists and suddenly any tactic up to and including halting the functioning of the state is an act of patriotism.
Perfectly legal policies are responded to with what is approaching insurrection territory.
The left's basic authoritarianism, sense of entitlement and belief in the irreversability of its central extra constitutional project has it headed down a very dangerous road.
It is the totalitarian road that was made inevitable when the anti-liberal New Left began its long march through the Democrat party close to fifty years ago.
They are invoking rhetoric and tactics that, if they do not control themselves, will lead to a national crisis.
They have grown so accustomed to accommodationist Republicans who were tolerated because they never actually threatened the one party authoritarian project the left embarked on privately in the pre Watergate era and publicly since then that a single non accommodationist president has them showing their true anti liberal, anti democratic, anti American tendencies in full.
They can't afford to have the inevibility of their Marxist derived historical determinism shown to be a fraud and so they are essentially engaged in a game of chicken with the rest of us.
And make no mistake the fate of the country is at stake. If they win this round of chicken, not by intimidating Trump or his voters, but by intimidating the pols necessary to implement Trump's policies we will have exhausted the last peaceful political chance we had to prevent their project, which has always been to destroy our constitutional republic and replace it with their version of the Paris commune.
The left is always and everywhere infected with the totalitarian temptation and they appear to be intent, at least many of them, on forcing a showdown of whether they will be granted essential veto power over any even mild dismantling of their engine of coercion and unbridled state power.
If the rest of us do not blink and instead defend our founding principles it could get ugly very fast. If we do blink it will eventually get ugly anyway but it will be farther down the road.
But don't kid yourself, they consider this to the death; the death of our country and as many of us as is necessary to ensure the former.The core of the left already openly talks of killing Trump and rioting, punching and killing people opposed to them. Soros and his many tentacled network is bent on any means necessary to create a closed society utterly dominated by the left's anti God, anti West, anti political liberty and ultimately anti human ideology.
Their anti democratic reaction, if it continues will have truly marked January 20 2017 as the beginning of the active phase of the second civil war.

"And make no mistake the fate of the country is at stake. If they win this round of chicken, not by intimidating Trump or his voters, but by intimidating the pols necessary to implement Trump's policies we will have exhausted the last peaceful political chance we had to prevent their project, which has always been to destroy our constitutional republic and replace it with their version of the Paris commune."

I would be absolutely delighted if the First Lady hired only a single "Social Secretary" and made no secret that she intends to stay in NYC for days/weeks on end and to go about her own life. "We have agreed that my husband will work 24x7 to try to save this country and I, for one, do not intend to distract him from that."

The ruling class Repukes should be on notice that what happened with Trump can very easily happen with their seats.

They're all operating under the rule of "I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you."

What they absolutely refuse to see is that letting the bear eat their fellows does not satiate the bear's hunger, or slow it down. Just the opposite; it only makes the bear stronger, and faster, and hungrier. And sooner or later, everyone else will have been eaten, and it'll only be them and the bear, and they'll wonder how it could possibly have come to that.

eg "...as one of the first order of business for this new Congress is that, like most hardworking Americans, we intend to be working on the Hill at the very least five days a week from 8am to 6pm, there will be one two week break in August, there will be no "excused absences" permitted from any official duty without prior permission for the Whip, and there will be no travel out of the country unless it is directed by Leadership.

You know, I am glad to see that, Momto2. I am extremely tired of businesses either virtue signaling or bowing to pressure.

Starbucks sells coffee. It doesn't conduct foreign policy or national security. I don't care how the CEO votes or who he donates to, but leave me the hell alone and just make your overpriced coffee.

Seriously, why should I have to deal with all of these people, not only from Hollywood, but also from the corporate world, telling me what the proper way to think is? It's offensive in both its intrusiveness and its arrogance.

Pertinent to ig's very valid point, abc news last night appears to be intent on fostering ths all as a civil war they want to fuel with righteous indignation. Watching how they framed everything going on makes it impossible to ever want to benefit disney.

They also ran long and literally used first 15 minutes framing outrage over trump and then did puff stories.

Hubby received an email from the Maine GOP this morning. It was a "heads up" about the small cities of Hallowell and Gardiner presenting draft resolutions to their respective city councils to become sanctuary cities.
Is this happening all over the country? The Maine media has been pushing the "Maine needs new citizens" mantra for months. The Democrat leaning cities are putting out the welcome mat. A city council member in one of the cities said this needs to be done in defiance of Trump.

Agree with Marlene - if you are crate training him, you need to figure out a way for him to be in the crate. I use old towels (which can be easily washed) on one end of crate in case of accidents. A soft blanket or two are fine substitutes for the bed. He can play/lounge on his big bed when allowed outside of crate during supervised times. Enjoy - they grow *so* fast! (also take lots of pictures)

I agree with you, MM. That "pick a pet project" reminds me of the Miss America pageant. Every contestant now has to have a "cause" and usually something with heartstrings attached. "Making sure blind children in poor countries are given braille computers" or some such thing.

A bit of both. It's a status update on various sponsored projects. I'm there mostly for the wheel/rail interaction. RCF and related damage is affected by the friction and my widget gets to the nub of that.

My attic is filled with old dog crates for which we had great hopes with each new puppy, but most did not last a week. Something about hope springing eternally? Every time my wife mentions rescuing another mutt, I point out that our bed is not big enough for another one.

Their intention is to cow the rest of us into not fighting by intimidation and disruption. And judging by the history of the last eighty years they have good reason to believe they will succeed as they have before.
They are geniuses at using societal pressure and brinksmanship to stifle effective opposition.
Remember, they don't mind an opposition so long as it is not a threat to their long term goals. In fact they prefer an ineffectual opposition to no opposition at all as it legitimizes and disguises their basic hatred of political liberty.

I crate-trained Maggie until she got too big for the crate. Since she was bought as a watchdog when I lived alone, it seemed pointless to keep her in the crate. She sleeps in the hall between the bedrooms with one eye on the front door.

She doesn't get in bed with me because she likes the cool of the floor - always has.

Or, if it does, why those citizens must be immigrants rather than Americans

Oh James, regular old Americans are so bland and boring! Why settle for them when you can import exotic, fascinating people who dress differently, eat differently, don't speak English, and have a very different "religion" (Catholics and Baptists are so stodgy.)

It will make them "feel" so superior and inclusive and brilliant! See, see how wonderful we are - we brought in these lovely curious people for you to live with ....now carry on!

I'd like to see Trump announce today fair warning that he will not under any circumstances sign a CR to keep the government open past 10/31/2017. Congress must be forced to accomplish 13 signed Appropriation Bills by then or the shutdown will be on them, and it will last as long as it takes.

You are right and it is why they despise and fear Trump. He's not intimidated and leads by example. We have had 18 months of Trump not giving two hoots what the PC term is for anything, bluntly telling us what's wrong with the country, and in the process attacking their most lethal weapon, the mainstream media.

And what has them in a tailspin is that it is contagious. My number one example is Pence, of course, but close seconds are Priebus and Spicer.

Spicer is now getting daily live threads on his press briefings!

The Left is going to lose it, big time. Probably the best thing would be if a RICO charge could be brought against Soros. Removing a lot of the funding would stop a lot of this stuff.

You can soak the dry kibble in warm water or even warm chicken broth. Crate training is the fastest, easiest way to house train a puppy. It takes determination but the end result is worth it. They will actually grow to like the crate and treat it as a den.

actually, I did write a comment on that silly story about Melania. I also gave the silly Petula what for in the comments section. These days we get the Post for the Sports section and, because we're old, the obituaries.

I know, I've failed in the past before I began to foster dogs. Now, it is a must because I often bring an adult dog into my home. Some of these have never been inside before and have lived on a chain outside :(

I always make the crate a good thing - never use for discipline. They get a frozen stuffed Kong or other treat puzzles that takes a long time to consume. Soon they run to their crate because crate = yummy treat.

They must have plenty of exercise, though. Crating a dog who is not exercised is cruel and will not work out well.

If the founders saw McCain and Schumer they'd think the country was made up of unserious idiots.

Yes, but I am sure the founders dealt with plenty of shortsighted fools in their day.
But its not the presence of knuckleheads that worries me - its the absence of great leaders. Where are Henry Clay and Daniel Webster? Even Lyndon Johnson was legendary for imposing his will and herding cats.

Today (OK, yesterday) what, Harry Reid?

Off hand, Ben Sasse of Nebraska is the only Senator whose opinion I weigh carefully. Not to exclude people like Jodi Ernst, but she is not a big media presence.

Well. I'm holding out for a hero, and I got Trump. And unhappy is the land that *needs* a hero.

James, that's why I harp on getting Congress under control...like yesterday. As has been stated often before, any POTUS can be impeached for anything the House says is impeachable at the time; even if the Senate does not convict, the damage is enormous. Obama avoided it 1)because he was black, 2)the backup would have been Biden, and 3)the opposition party was GOPe. Nobody doubts that GOPe would be just delighted to put Pence in for Trump, and then install, say, Ryan as his VP.

Well. I'm holding out for a hero, and I got Trump. And unhappy is the land that *needs* a hero.

Trump is the default hero because the Republican Party had too many elected officials who didn't even attempt to make good on their campaign promises. This created a vacuum that needed to be filled and now the squishes are pushing back more against Trump than they ever did the JEF. They all need to go; the sooner the better.